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Maurice came back to Brian’s room for the first time in years. The boy was… sixteen now? Maybe seventeen? Maurice wasn’t entirely sure.
Maurice had continuously postponed coming back to Brian’s room. What if the boy was mad with him over everything Maurice had done before? Or he might not just want to see Maurice at all. It had been a long time, after all.
But finally, Maurice had decided that today was the day. He had made up his mind. He was going to see Brian again. Hopefully, he hasn’t moved, Maurice thought to himself.
His attention was drawn to a folded piece of paper that was pushed partially under the bed. It had his name written on it. He grabbed it and unfolded it. And then he started to read…
Oh boy… hey there, Maurice. It’s Brian! You haven’t come around in five years now. You know, since everything happened in the monster world. I’m sixteen, now! Happy birthday to me~
Anyway… A lot has happened in the last few years. To start, you were right about Kiersten and I. We got together less than a week after we got back home. We were dating for a long time, we only stopped… Seven months ago, in January of this year. Wow, it feels so much longer than that. I’ll get more into that a bit later.
Mom and Dad did divorce in the end, to no one’s surprise. Dad’s in Canada, married to some Latina chick. Mom comes home with a lot of different boyfriends, but none ever get serious or stay around for long. It’s all been really hard on Eric, he blames himself, no matter how much I try to tell him it isn’t his fault.
Toad Tod is still around, but he almost never hangs out with Eric anymore. He found some “cooler” friends that he would rather be around.
Ronnie Coleman? Remember him? I’m sure you do, you had fun messing with his lunch back then. Well, we became quick friends after everything happened. Not many people expected it, or understood how it happened. Anyway, he left. His family got an R.V. and they went out in it to travel the world. They don’t have any way of contacting me, either.
Haven’t heard a word from him since he left four years ago. Yeah, soon after everything happened and you stopped coming around.
Sometimes I wonder if he’s doing well. Or if he’s even alive.
And as for Kiersten… This part hurts to write, so I’ll postpone it by telling you some of the happier things from our relationship.
She’s the lovey-dovey type. Loves romantic dinners, roses, pet names, cuddling, going on walks together in the fall. But she’s still a tom-girl. Still enjoys science. By the way, she forgave you for eating her assignment. Oh, she got into photography as well. She had a tack board full of photos of me.
We would have movie nights every week, alternating genres each time. She loved chick-flicks and cheesy romances. They made me roll my eyes, but I loved her so I watched them anyways. I could quote back Titanic to you word for word.
I liked horror because of the suspense and the jump scares. I liked the way it scared me. She liked horror because it gave her a reason to be held by me.
Anyway, I’ve rambled about the happy things long enough, here’s what happened that ended it all.
Kiersten’s grades never changed, she was always a straight-A student. Most of this turned out to be because of how strict her parents were and how much they expected of her.
Eventually… It got too much for her to handle… She couldn’t do it anymore, she couldn’t keep up with all the studying. She wasn’t able to always get a hundred on her tests. Her parents hated that their daughter was getting less than perfect and tried to cram more and more studying into her schedule. It overwhelmed her to the point that she couldn’t do it.
She overdosed on pills. No note or anything. Just her dead body on the bathroom floor with an empty pill bottle.
I couldn’t bring myself to go to her funeral. In fact, I didn’t leave my bed for at least a week. She was everything to me.
So yeah, my life is in shambles.
I don’t even know if it’s still a life. I’m just a shell of the boy I used to be. I don’t enjoy doing anything, even the hobbies I had that brought me joy beyond what you could ever imagine. I don’t have any friends anymore. Ronnie’s gone, Kiersten’s gone, you’re gone. I can’t make Eric happy, I can’t bring my family together. My parents hate each other…
So, this is my final letter, Maurice.
You probably won’t even see it since you don’t come around anymore. But maybe a year down the road you’ll see it.
I understand why you don’t come around, though. You have your own life in the monster world. A life of fun, games, and food. A life I can’t go down and share with you. It would be rude if I forced you to stay up here just to hang out with me.
Oh, who am I kidding? You’re just mad at me for everything I said and did. And you have every reason to be mad, I don’t blame you at all.
I do miss you, though. You’ve always been my best friend, since we first met, even though you stopped coming up here to hang out with me. I wear the vest you gave me. I wear it every day, it still fits perfectly. I even remember our handshake.
But you can have the vest back. If you happen to see this note at all, that is. It’s folded on the bed, unless of course it’s been a while and someone moved it. Eric and my mom are out on a vacation, which is the only reason why I can do this without getting caught. If you happen to come along before they’re back then it’ll still be on the bed.
My mom wouldn’t get rid of the vest, not after seeing how much it means to me. So, if it isn’t on the bed anymore then feel free to hunt around the house for it.
Anyway, getting back on track… I don’t have anything, Maurice. Or anyone. And that’s a painful lifestyle. One that I don’t want.
So, that’s why I’m writing this, to say goodbye.
Goodbye, Maurice. Thank you for everything.
—Brian Stevenson
August Twentieth, 1994
Maurice’s heart was in his throat as he set the note down. August twentieth… that was today’s date. He got out from under the bed and found the vest folded neatly on the bed. It was still in the same condition it had been when Maurice had given it to Brian. All the same pins and accessories, too.
He had a new vest by now, but he picked the old one up and examined it anyway, more for the nostalgia than anything.
He turned and found a sticky note on the wall. He walked over and read it.
I got Eric’s baseball cards when he didn’t want them anymore, please, take them.
Maurice scanned the cards on the wall and smiled to himself. They were all the cards that he had said he needed when he first met Brian. He took them all off of the wall, putting them in his pockets.
He turned around and was met with another surprise.
A terrible surprise.
He should have expected it, the note had basically spelled it out for him… But it still surprised him. Maybe it was because he just hadn’t wanted to accept the real meaning of the note.
Hanging from the ceiling, with a stool knocked over by his feet, was the body of sixteen-year-old Brian Stevenson.